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Existential sentences in Tagalog: commentary on the paper by Joseph Sabbagh

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Abstract

In his article in this volume, Joseph Sabbagh treats existential there sentences (henceforth, ET sentences) as a type of structure whose expression in different languages may vary. Taking the first step in constructing a typology of ET sentences, he claims that ET sentences in the Western Austronesian language Tagalog are built from an unaccusative predicate, whereas ET sentences in English, according to the proposals he cites, are constructed from small clauses. Both analyses have also been proposed for ET sentences in other Western Austronesian languages. For instance, in Malagasy, a Western Austronesian language spoken in Madagascar, Pearson (1996) and Paul (2000) defend a small clause analysis of ET sentences, whereas Polinsky (2008) argues persuasively for an analysis involving an unaccusative predicate. At various points in this commentary, I try to push the typology of ET further by suggesting possible typological correlates of their form.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, UCLA, 3125 Campbell Hall, Box 951543, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1543, USA

    Edward L. Keenan

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  1. Edward L. Keenan
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Correspondence to Edward L. Keenan.

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Many thanks to Nenita Domingo for judgments and sophisticated discussion.

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Keenan, E.L. Existential sentences in Tagalog: commentary on the paper by Joseph Sabbagh. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 27, 721–735 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-009-9080-6

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